Marcus Lopés

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Marcus

The Wanderer

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wanderer

Generally speaking, we tend to group writers into two camps: plotters and pansters. Plotters write an outline of their entire book before they sit down to write, hence the nickname. Pansters, as you can imagine, fly by the seat of their pants. They have an idea and they sit down and write—no idea where the writing will go, but they let the words ‘lead’ them. I’m a panster. I like taking a flicker of an idea and developing it as I type. But lately, I’ve become another type of writer: a wanderer. [Read more…] about The Wanderer

When Life Throws a Curveball

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curveball

It happened overnight. That subtle shift from forty-nine to being half a century old. I didn’t make a big deal out of turning fifty. A few of us celebrated the occasion at Antler, a restaurant I’d been wanting to try for a while—and we weren’t disappointed. I had planned to kayak the morning of my birthday, but strong winds forced to me reschedule. The next day, though, I was out on the water and exploring the Humber River—all the while trying to dodge the curveball life was throwing at me. [Read more…] about When Life Throws a Curveball

50 Years of Learning

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life

With my fiftieth birthday looming (it’s tomorrow), I’ve been quietly reflecting on my life’s journey so far. Since I’ve always believed that age is a state of mind, I’ve never had—and am not having now—one of those ‘crisis moments’ that some people have when they hit certain milestone ages. But in my fifty years on this planet, I like to think that I’ve gathered a little wisdom. And today, I’d like to share a few of the lessons (in no particular order as I believe they’re equally important) that life has taught me, beginning with… [Read more…] about 50 Years of Learning

Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself

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hard on yourself

Are you a time-waster? I am. Sometimes. As a writer who’s always had a day job, I have always tried to be intentional about making time to create. And I like to think that, for the most part, I have done that. I write consistently during the early morning hours. When necessary, I take vacation days to finish editing a novel, review galleys, or make sure everything is set for a book’s release. When I consider every minute outside of work to be precious, I try not to waste them. But I’m human. And sometimes distractions pull us away from what you think matters most. When that happens, how do you learn to not be so hard on yourself? [Read more…] about Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself

When Providence Moves

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providence

When I walked out of the office on 28 June 2023, I had no idea what I was going to do in the days that followed. Rest? Absolutely. Write? Of course. Run? You betcha. Immediately look for another job? Meh. I recognized that I needed time to ‘detox’ and to get my bearings. The thing is, we never know when providence will move.

Listen to Your Body

Leaving my job just ahead of the Canada Day long weekend, I had a bit of a plan formulated in my head: take a few days, maybe a week, to rest and then ‘begin’ the job search. (Oh, the lies we tell ourselves!) What I didn’t count on was the level of exhaustion that tackled me and pinned me down. To train for the marathon and write before work, I’d been getting up around 2:30 am for months. That made for longs days. Was it any wonder I felt like someone had parked a GMC Sierra on my chest? [Read more…] about When Providence Moves